The moment the steel metal pen touched the silver map point trace on the master console, Boundary Pylon Three didn’t emit thunder.
It emitted a high-hum sound carrier wave that snuffed out the sound of the wind, the shouting of the advancing raiders, and the clockwork clatter of the assault skiffs.
For three tenths of a second, the universe inside the tiered arena dropped into an eerie, unnatural hush.
In Lin Tao’s left eye, the test screen carried out the routing handshake:
At the pinnacle of the ninety-foot star-iron obelisk, the faceted yellow spirit-crystal didn’t glow with its familiar amber protective veil.
It flared with a blinding, terrifying blazing bright violet bright glare that turned the midnight fog into a dome of burning white daylight. The air around the pinnacle spark-charged instantly, releasing a choking cloud of ozone that swept down the ridge like a tidal wave. The surrounding heat spiked by forty degrees in a split second as the air molecules were stripped of their electrons.
High above the shale, Vanguard Commander Yue froze in mid-stride.
The veteran martial master had fought in three border campaigns against the Azure Cloud Sect. He knew the capabilities of Boundary Pylon Three. He had learned by heart its defensive settings, its recharge rates, and its blind spots. The pylon was a passive shield, designed to absorb moving impacts and deflect long-range spiritual artillery. It possessed no offensive lightning protocols.
